The celebration of Israel's 63^rd Independence Day took place in the week when Jews throughout the world heard the weekly Torah reading that begins with the words "When you come to the land that I give you..."

When G-d instructed Moshe to speak to the Children of Israel and relay to them the laws of the Shemittah sabbatical year, He referred to the gift of the Land of Israel in the present tense (I give you). This was a reminder that our presence in the Holy Landis a perpetual gift, and that we must avoid the human conceit of thinking that it is we who are the masters of our fate.

The age-old dream of independence can only come true in all its glory if we internalize the sense of dependence on He who gave us this Land and Who alone can make this gift last forever.

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